Pandora's Box
by oakleaf
Summary: A story hope and its many forms, and how they come about. A three-part one-shot. Spoilers for books 8 and 9. Kinda AU, but not really. Rated for mentioned violence.


**Pandora's Box**

**Summary: A story hope and its many forms, and how they come about. A three-part one-shot. Spoilers for books 8 and 9. Kinda AU, but not really. Rated for mentioned violence.**

**Oakleaf: This wasn't written by me, but the person who wrote it doesn't have an FFnet account and asked me to beta and post it. **

**Actual author's note: First Fanfic! Waa…Set after the books sometime. SPOILER ALERT. Wrote this in two days… I'm amazed.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice. If I did, there would be no romance, just pure action. So…yeah.**

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**Part 1****When All Hope Is Lost**

_Will POV_

They say the last thing left in Pandora's Box was hope.

They were right.

Imagine this, if you can.

You're stuck. On battle field. Facing an army of around 1,000 simple farming folk armed with simple weapons; armed also with the idea that they can't die. Not a good combination. Especially if the weapons are sharp.

And you're facing all of this with three dozen arrows, a bow, a Saxe knife and a throwing knife.

All by yourself because you're great, invincible mentor has decided to get himself shot by a Genovesan. Again. You think you'd learn from the first time but nooo, let's get ourselves shot by a crossbow bolt again. At least this time it wasn't poisoned.

All by yourself because your knight in shining armour had a different mission.

Imagine hard.

Now try and retain hope.

Hard, isn't it?

_Third Person POV_

It had all started with a simple mission (doesn't it always?). Just another mission concerning religious preachers.

"Oh, nothing large, not even worthy of your talents." Crowley had said.

How wrong he was.

Seems these 'religious preachers' were more advanced than the Outsiders. They even remembered to bring Genovesans. 6 of them. These religious preachers held more sway over their followers, but didn't ask for gold and other jewels. This raised the question- what the hell were they doing this for?

Halt and Will soon found out. After intercepting envoys sent from the camp, they soon found that the aim was to create army that does not think. With this army, they would take over all of Araluen, and then over the world.

But how would it work?

Will was sent to the camp to find out how they did it. Soon he was so engrossed into this 'religion' that he almost become one of the mindless army. Basically, the preachers sort of took over the minds of their subjects, just like Morgarath did to the Wargals. The only thing that saved him was Halt's timely arrival.

Problem was, the headlong flight from camp:

a) Broke their cover;

b) Set Genovesans on their tail; and

c) Got Halt shot. The wound to Halt was not fatal, but it did bleed like hell. Soon after escaping enough, Halt fell unconscious due to blood loss.

The only good thing was it thinned the number of Genovesans to a grand total of 3. Halt shot one before being injured, and Will managed to shoot two. The rest, upon realizing they were against better archers than them, fled. Their duty to money did not extend to getting killed.

So now to the current situation. After a game of hide and seek for 3 days, the mindless army finally found him.

Will was facing a horde of people who did not think. He was facing them with limited weapons. And he was tired as hell from three days of almost no sleep.

Oh yay. How fun.

Under the influence of their leader (who incidentally could not be seen by Will, therefore not allowing him a shot), the mindless army came forward as one.

Will was caught in a dilemma. What should he do? Does he fire upon the mass of gullible farming folk?

Will was left with no choice but to shoot. But to spare their lives, he shot them only in non-vital areas. This prompted the leader to order the army forward, knowing Will could not kill them in cold blood. The arrows ripping through vulnerable flesh served to produce high pitched wails, which did nothing other than hurt Will's poor ears.

Soon after running out of arrows, the mass of people were upon him. Even Will's quick reflexes could not keep him out of the way of all of the weapons slashing towards him. Will could do nothing but back away, all the while parring as many blows as he could with his knives. Wounds began to appear suddenly, like on his arms and legs. The little red welts would appear suddenly and burst open like a volcano spilling lava.

Soon his many wounds began to slow him down, gaining him even more wounds. But Will could not feel them, as his arms felt so numb he couldn't feel anything.

Will's last thought was that it was lucky he had sent Abelard away, containing a message to Crowley and carrying Halt to safety. He was also glad he had hid Tug, who would not die with him today on this battlefield. He knew that he would have to make a last stand, and that he would probably die.

Then he fell unconscious.

Will was too late to hear a thundering of hooves from behind him.

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**Part 2  
****When Hope Is Found**

_Will POV_

They say that the last thing left in Pandora's Box was hope.

They were wrong.

I had expected to die on that battlefield, but I find myself alive and well, just in a hospital.

I haven't heard about Halt yet, but I know he has survived.

I am filled with hope; hope for me, hope for Halt, hope for the future.

I feel so happy I keep almost going on a high.

The religious group is defeated, with the help of Gilan and Crowley and a whole load of other Ranger's. One riot, one Ranger. Therefore, 7 Ranger's must equal some pretty bad riot, and it was. Out of these 7, including me and Halt, 4 of us sustained injuries major enough to be put in hospital, and the rest sustained only minor wounds.

You'd have to be pretty sadistic not to feel hope.

_Third Person POV_

The events that transpired after Will fell unconscious are as follows:

The Rangers sent to clear up this business arrived just after Will fainted. After around half an hour of fighting, one of the Rangers finally managed to get an arrow through the leader. After this, it was quite a simple matter to convince the farming folk to lay down their arms. After bringing in doctors to heal the wounded, lecturing the farmers to be more careful about religious preachers, the Rangers set out to send their injured comrades to hospital.

Will was unconscious for a grand total of 3 days before finally waking up.

Upon waking up, and seeing Gilan through groggy but still sharp eyes, he asked in a shy voice, "Are you really God?"

"Why do you ask?" replied Gilan.

"Because you look a lot like Gilan." Will mumbled.

"Speak louder." Gilan commanded.

"Because if you are god you look a lot like Gilan." said Will, much clearer this time.

At this, Gilan could not help but laugh.

And so Will learnt that he was still alive.

Soon after, all of his friends came to visit. Horace came first, apologising profusely for not being there. Alyss and Jenny soon followed.

Even Malcolm came to visit, on the seventh day of Will's hospitalisation, to check up on Halt and to see Will.

Will was very happy to see him, and immediately asked for news on Halt's health.

Malcolm was visibly uncomfortable, but Will, intent on making his bed, didn't notice.

When Will turned around and asked again, Malcolm answered that Halt was ok. Malcolm left soon after.

His spirits were high, and he could not wait to get out of hospital, or visit Halt who was in his own ward.

In the night of the seventh day of his hospitalisation, he woke to the sound of Crowley and a doctor arguing quietly outside the door. He heard Crowley saying that he had a right to know. The doctor was arguing something about being too fragile. After not being able to make heads or tails out of it, Will just decided to go back to sleep.

In the morning he found out.

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**Part 3  
****A Discussion on Hope**

_Will POV_

They say that the last thing left in Pandora's Box was hope.

They were both right and wrong.

Waking up in the morning, I found out that Halt had died. I was devastated.

I was making my bed when I saw Crowley hovering in the doorway. I cheerily told him to come in. He came in, and after a terse silence Crowley broke the news. I could not see his face underneath the cowl, but I could hear from his voice that he was crying. Halt had died from blood loss.

Apparently Halt wanted it to end. He was in pain. He wanted to pass on. And he finally got his wish.

I feel sorry now that I had snapped at Crowley when he asked if I was ok. I guess I wasn't exactly too happy.

I blame myself for Halt's death. If I hadn't been transfixed by the preachers, Halt might have been saved. If I had shot that Genovesan that shot Halt then he might have survived.

They say the last thing left in Pandora's Box was hope, but I have learnt better. I have learnt that hope isn't something that comes along; it is something you must create.

And so I aim to create hope.

I had thought of suicide, to be with Halt and my parents again. But I have abandoned that idea. What a great way to repay Halt's greatest sacrifice, by killing myself. Halt would have wanted me to still be happy. He wouldn't want me to be depressed. So in his memory, I will regain hope, and live my life as I would.

My hope might not be as strong as before. It might not be as easily found as before.

But I will keep hope.

After all this, I have learnt a valuable life lesson.

_Third Person POV_

Will was discharged from hospital the day after Halt's death.

Halt's funeral was held five days after his death. It was a private event, with only his close friends and some other Rangers attending. Will was sorely tempted to not go, but he knew that he could never rest if he didn't.

The funeral took place in the clearing behind the house that Will now resided in. As the Master of Ceremonies began the speech about how great Halt was and how sorely he would be missed, Will's mind began to roam.

In his mind, he could see Halt teaching him how to use the bow and arrow.

He could see Halt watching him as he was practising throwing his Saxe knife, mostly making disparaging comments but sometimes offering advice.

He could see him making sarcastic comments as he was practising standing still and crawling.

He could see Halt looking exasperated while he fired off question after question.

The droning voice of the MC went on and on.

But Will was too lost in his recollections of the past.

He saw Halt chasing him up a tree as he practised his mandola.

He remembered the first time Halt had actually praised on his archery. Of course, Halt had followed it immediately afterwards with disparaging comments.

And in his mind, Will finally said farewell to his great mentor.

After the ceremony had finished, Will was wandering around among the other guests, trying to hold back tears. He was glad the Ranger's hood had a cowl. He was surprised when he heard a voice say to him in a whisper, "He loved you."

Will was startled. He looked up and saw Lady Pauline looking at him seriously.

"He might not have ever told you, but he viewed you as his son. He worried about you as a father worries about his son. Whether you were well, whether you were happy. He would have been glad to have sacrificed his life to save yours. Just make sure you honour his memory and don't do anything stupid. Don't blame yourself.

"He just wanted you to be happy. Just take hope in the fact that you still have a full life in front of you. Never give up.

"He was always so proud of you. You, his son."

And Will let his tears fall at last.

He began singing a tune quietly. The Ranger next to him heard and began to hum. Soon all the Rangers were singing, or at least humming it. This song was none other than 'A Cabin in the Trees'. The song began to end as the sun began to go down.

The last lingering note faded into silence and all was quiet. Not even the birds stirred on the tree tops.

A fitting farewell for a great man.

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**Oakleaf: Thanks for reading. Because I know the author won't ask you, please take the time to review, even if it's one word. **


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